Redbud Trees

Redbuds are beautiful; they burst into bright bloom right after the Bradford Pears and ornamental cherries.  Around here, you typically see two different varieties, one with medium-pink blooms, and one with darker magenta ones.  I’d love to dig up the leaning, bad-tempered maple in our yard and replace it with a redbud at some point.  They don’t bloom for long, but when they do it’s just stunning.

the darker variety (March, 2012)

(March, 2012)

the lighter variety (march 2012)

Japanese Magnolia

I love Japanese Magnolia trees.  They’re also sometimes called Lily Magnolias, or lots of other things. There’s one in my in-laws’ neighbor’s yard and every time I see it it just floors me — how beautiful these things are.

Henbit Deadnettle

My favorite flowers when I was a kid were the lovely purple weeds that plague everyone’s lawns first thing in the springtime.  They’re the only flowers that I can count on to be blooming by my birthday, and they show up faithfully every year.

I finally got around to looking them up and — though I’ve always vaguely thought it was some sort of clover, despite looking nothing like clover — it turns out it’s called henbit.  The latin name is Lamium amplexicaule; it’s also called Greater Henbit according to Wikipedia.  It’s apparently not even native to this continent, which surprises me, considering how well it does here.  (But … considering kudzu, perhaps it’s not surprising.)  It’s also edible.  I have not tried it, though, so I can’t tell you whether it’s any good.

Bradford Pears

The Bradford pear trees around here normally begin to bloom by March 14th or 15th.  This year, they were putting out buds weeks early, and burst into bloom just at the end of February.  Bradford pears are lovely, especially when they’re just a few years old and have that nice, uniform shape, but they tend to have trouble as they get older.  (You know,kind of like us humans, now that I think about it.)  They have a very narrow trunk and their branches seem to sustain a lot of damage during our occasional ice storms.  I don’t think they are a tree I’d want to plant, but I do love seeing them bloom in the spring, and the gorgeous colors they turn in the fall.

We’ve been having some more rain lately and the weather’s staying mild so far (knock on wood) so it looks like it should be a lovely spring for flowers.  I LOVE flowers.

Especially flowers I don’t have to weed, water, fertilize, or plant.

This one's been severely pruned since it's under a power line; normally, they look almost as uniform as lollipops.

The End of Winter

Spring came early in 2012, startlingly early, concluding one of the mildest winters I can remember.   It was a winter of mostly glorious days, blue skies and temperatures in the sixties and seventies for weeks at a stretch.  There were no major snow- or ice-storms, and very little rain.

dormant Crepe Myrtle branches, waiting to be pruned (Feb. 16, 2012)

wintery trees and dun-yellow grass (Feb. 17, 2012)

One of the sadder parts of the central Oklahoma landscape these days is the number of pine trees that are dead or dying.  I’m not sure what it is about this part of the country, but it certainly seems … inhospitable to pines.  Perhaps it’s just too hot for them here; I’ve also heard that there may be a disease that’s killing them off.  Seeing their brown, bristly skeletons makes me sad.

dead pine tree (Feb. 20, 2012)

A New Direction: Adventures in Photography

I just got a new camera.  (How badly did you cringe?  Yeah, I know.  Me, too.)  I’m not a photographer.  I love taking listing photos, though, and finally bought a reasonably nice entry-level DSLR to step up my game.

There are so many lovely things to see in central Oklahoma; I’d like to share a little of my visions of them.  My hope is to capture some of the beautiful, evocative, or interesting things I see on my daily trek to share here.  So here’s to something new and different for the blog!  I’ll still post occasionally about the forms and issues affecting the OKC metro market, but I’m going to try a more visual direction for a while.

Foggy Morning Drive

After the halfhearted snowstorm of last week, we had a couple of days of beautiful, evocative and — for many drivers — treacherous morning fog.  The dewy, heady air felt more like spring than winter; the birds have been chirruping, the trees budding out, and the narcissus pushing up like it’s mid-March.  I even saw a bobcat cross the road the other day, but he or she was gone before I could snap a picture.

Scrub Tree Silhouettes

Shadow Houses (Vintage Farms addition off SW 134th & Penn, seen from Penn)

Roadside Trees

OAR Broker Conference 2012: Coming Changes to Broker Relationships

Last week, I went to the Oklahoma Association of Realtors Broker Conference at the Skirvin-Hilton in downtown Oklahoma City to hear about the recently proposed changes to Oklahoma’s Broker Relationships Act.  More on that in a moment.  I haven’t been to the newly restored hotel before; it was lovely!  I’m six months pregnant and was wearing heels (naturally) so I opted for the valet parking, and … it was twelve dollars.  Yes.  Really.  The conference — and its delicious food — was free, though, so I figure I came out about even.  Also, it was SO nice not having to walk in the atrocious weather we had that day.

The entryway was gorgeous with dark woods, gilded gargoyles, and amazing red cut velvet drapery panels framing some of the doorways.  The bar has a red lacquer grand piano; I managed to resist the urge to sit down and start playing “Chopsticks”.  Barely.

Scarlet O'Hara would DIE.

And if you or someone you’re close to has ever been pregnant, you know that the next place I visited was of course the bathroom.  I tend to judge hotels and event centers entirely by their bathrooms.  (It’s the same with listings; I don’t care how lovely the kitchen is, [or, well, I CARE, but ...] if the bathrooms are cramped, gross, tacky, or scary, we’ve got work to do.)  This one passed for sheer opulent-ness.

The wallpaper! The tile mosaic! Yes, it's trippy. Ostentatious. Over-the-top. I love it.

And then I went up the stairs — which have NOT been updated or prettified, incidentally — to the actual conference.

I only came for the lunch and Broker Relationships discussion, not for all the breakout sessions and roundtables, so I had some time to kill while the morning sessions wrapped up.

Lovely railing.

And I was not disappointed; the pork chop and steamed veggies were delicious (if a bit difficult to eat with NINE other people around a six-seater table) and the session was … informative.  Of course, most of it was about how we need to be involved in (that is, give money to) the Realtor lobbying group RPAC.  And they went over many of the proposed bills that are working their way through the state legislature.  About like watching paint dry, without the contact high.

They saved the meaty discussion to the end, so that no one would leave beforehand.  Remember my post about Broker Relationships?  Well, that law is still very much in effect, but if the proposed changes to it are adopted, it will change quite radically in a little under two years.

The new law removes the terms “Single-Party Broker” and “Transaction Broker” and calls us all just brokers.  It defines the “duties” that we as brokers are required to provide for every client with whom we work — honesty, confidentiality, etc. — and allows us to offer additional, more specialized “services” as we choose.  It requires us to let our clients know upfront whether we’re working with any other party to the transaction, to explain what our legal duties are, and to tell them what, if any, additional services we will provide.

I am SO excited about the change.  It will (if it is adopted in or near its current, simple, reasonably well-written form) provide a significantly better-thought-out legal framework around which we as brokers can build our individual business models.

For those of us who actually pay attention to all the things we’re supposed to say to our clients upfront, we’ll have a slightly easier time doing so.  The current discussion of the Single-Party/Transaction Broker distinction is finicky, technical and, for many if not most clients, largely irrelevant.  They want to buy or sell a property, and they’re hiring us to help them.  Cluttering it all up with verbiage about “vicarious liability” (expressly removed in the proposed revision) and “for the benefit of” feels, to me, more like an exercise in excavating hairsplitting legalese than a meaningful conversation that empowers my clients to navigate their transactions more successfully.

And that’s the goal, right?

Realty Tech: I LOVE my iPad (with caveats)

Mary Fallin signed the bill last week that allows the use of electronic signatures on Real Estate contracts, so I’m one step closer to going paperless.  Other agents who are contemplating getting an iPad for Real Estate use, possibly with the aim of reducing the RIDICULOUS amount of paper we use … this bud’s for you.

OKCMAR started offering Transaction Desk while I was taking a break from selling Real Estate, so it was a pleasant surprise when I got back in the game.  There they were!  All the forms!  Wow!  You didn’t have to go to the Filing Cabinet of Doom in your office printer room and hunt for the right forms through its archaic grid organized by sadistic trolls, or anything!  The only problem was you still had to print them out, on paper, and physically sign them with a physical pen that you physically stole from the title company down the hall.

So I decided to buy myself an iPad.  And it’s been great — but there are a few things I wish I’d known.  For now, these issues prevent me from using my iPad as my sole work computer, but don’t keep me from using it on a daily basis as a very useful business tool.

USING THE MLS

You can’t access the current full version of Tempo (our MLS system) in Safari.  (You didn’t hear this from me, but I think there’s work being done to make the next incarnation browser-independent.  I can’t WAIT.) I wish I’d understood this before I bought it — not that I would have changed my mind, I was just very surprised and disappointed when I found out.

There are two things you can do:

You can pay an extra fee to OKCMAR for Tempo Wireless.  (ETA: Tempo Wireless is now Kurio Mobile.)  Yes, I do, because it’s actually a very easy-to-use site you can see and navigate easily from most mobile devices and is great for when you’re on the road and need to search for specific properties or run a very basic Quick Search.  You can also — if you need any of the more advanced MLS features — remote desktop connect to another computer that runs Internet Explorer, and log into the MLS that way.  It’s slow and clunky, but if you absolutely must do it, you can.  I use iTeleport to connect to either my home laptop or my work desktop and log into the MLS through it.

FORMS AND DOCUMENTS

More bad news … you can’t access Transaction Desk from your iPad, either.  You can access the feature-limited DocBox 2Go they have — so you can see the forms you’ve already created, but you can’t edit or create new ones. Unless (again) you do the Remote Connect thing — and it’s even slower and clunkier on TD than it is on the MLS.

So here’s what I do.  I use my desktop to create and edit the forms in Transaction Desk when I’m in the office, and then I’ve also created PDFs of my major file packets — contracts (with different packets for loan type and whether it’s an in-house or co-op transaction) and listings (pre- and post-1978).  Once I have the contract packets in PDF format, I use an app called GoodReader to create annotated copies of the blank form packets.  I put text fields with placeholder text in the different blanks, and I can just edit them as needed for each new transaction.  I can use the Draw — Freehand tool to sign it, and then email myself and my clients a copy of the filled-out and signed documents.  For the signing, I finally broke down and bough a higher-quality stylus, the BoxWave Capacitive iPad Stylus, and let me tell you.  Worth every penny.

Also, for what it’s worth, I use DropBox to store my files and keep them accessible from both the iPad, desktop, and home computer.  This way … it’s easier.

GRAPHIC DESIGN & WORD PROCESSING

I don’t do much graphic design these days; we have a kick-ass graphics department at my company so there’s little reason.  And since I’m most familiar with and quite like Macromedia Fireworks that I have on my other computer, I haven’t done very much with the iPad options.

As far as word processing, I’m a big fan of MS Word, so even though I’ve downloaded Pages and I’m sure it’s wonderful, I’m just not there yet.  I’ve used Information Architects (iA) Writer for some writing and journaling, but I’m finding the screen keypad too awkward to woo me away from my desk- and laptops permanently (and I’m too cheap (so far) to get an external keyboard yet).

So all told, while I like the idea of using my iPad as my primary work and play computer, I’m not there yet.  I’ll probably be a lot closer whenever Tempo & Transaction Desk become easily accessible on Safari, and when I get an external keyboard.  I’ll keep you posted.

LISTING FORMS: The Listing Agreement

Good advice: don’t sign anything without reading it through (or having your lawyer read it).  Better advice: don’t sign anything you don’t understand.

Let’s look at the current Exclusive Right-to-Sell or Lease Listing Agreement put out by the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Association of Realtors (OKCMAR).  This will be the first of a series of posts about the forms that we use here, so folks who are considering selling or buying a home can take their time going through the paperwork at their own pace.  Also, feel free to ask questions in the comments; even though our forms are pretty straightforward, they can be confusing and they are certainly LONG.  I’ll give you links to the full form in both visual and audio versions, and then I’ll go through a vastly condensed, five-thousand-foot overview.

Disclaimer: this is current as of Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011, when I pulled it off the MLS.  (Coincidentally, Wednesday was the day after our little historic blizzard, when I was literally and figuratively stuck at home with a sick toddler.  Fun times.)  These forms change periodically, though, so it’s not guaranteed for ever and ever.  Also, I’m not an attorney, and I’m not giving you legal advice.  But you knew that already.  Didn’t you?

So let’s dive in!  Here is a pdf of a blank listing form; you can also listen to the full agreement by clicking here.  (Yes, that’s me!  It makes a change from I Am a Bunny, Duck for President! and That’s Not My Plane.)

The agreement’s first page can be summed up in one sentence:  The Seller hires the Broker to help them sell or lease their place, hopefully for around this price, and by the end of this time period.

The big chunk of text in the middle lists what all’s expected to stay with the house when you move.  A good rule of thumb is this: if it would take a tool of some sort to separate it from the house or land (shovel, screwdriver, crowbar …) then it stays.  So if that’s great-great-gran’ma Magdelena’s chandelier and you wouldn’t part with it for the world, either replace it before you put the place on the market or say explicitly, in both the listing agreement and the contract when you get one, that that fixture is not included in the sale.

Next, we talk about how, exactly, the broker’s working for the seller, and for how much.  For a complete breakdown of the difference between Single-Party versus Transaction Brokers, see my article about that here.

The Listing Agreement then talks about the fee agents charge for their services, when they earn it, and when they receive it.  Brokers get paid when their listings sell.  If the seller breaks their promise to use the broker and sells their house without the broker’s involvement during the listing period, the broker still gets paid.  Some sellers (no, not you; don’t look at me like that) wait until their listing has expired to sell to a buyer who saw the place while it was listed, so they can get the benefit of the broker’s work and advertising resources without paying any commission.  Don’t do that; stealing is wrong.  Think how you’d feel if you found out you’d been working your *#%@ off for free for the past three months.

Also, transaction fees.  Some offices — mine included — charge a fee in addition to the commission.  In our case, that fee goes to pay the salaries of in-office transaction coordinators.  The transaction coordinators look over all our files and make sure that closing won’t be delayed because we (or the other agents) have made a mistake on our paperwork.

Disclosures.  You HAVE to spill everything you know about the house.  If you live or lived there, you have to fill out a Property Condition Disclosure Statement.  If you bought it as rental property, you can fill out a Property Condition Disclaimer Statement instead.  Whether you lived there or not, if it was built before 1978, you have to fill out a Lead-Based Paint disclosure.  And if you find anything out about new or previously unknown problems with the place while it’s listed, you have to disclose that, too.  This is important because if you have a deal that goes south after the prospective buyers have had the home inspected, you have to fill out a new form disclosing all the newly discovered issues before you put it back on the market.

KeyBoxes or Lock Boxes.  We use two different kinds.  The first are boxes that Oklahoma City Realtors can open with a key we get from OKCMAR.  These MLS-issued boxes log everyone who accesses it and when. They look like this:

 

KeyBox & SupraKey; a Realtor's best friends. Well, except for miracle-working lenders and title companies that keep us up to speed.

The other kind we use open with a combination.  That way, any Realtor who wants to show one of our listings has to call us directly for the combination, and we can get their name & information first.  Both kinds provide a regulated means for Real Estate professionals to access homes that are for sale.  But (don’t ask me who thought this, but apparently someone did) these boxes are not security systems — they will not make your home safer, and there are risks involved in giving people you don’t know access to your property.

If you are really freaked out by the idea, you can either have your broker be there at all showings (which is a pain, because it means that each showing has to be coordinated around, at minimum, FOUR schedules, but it is doable) or move first and sell the home when it’s vacant.

Section 12 on Page 4 is a list of everything the Seller is letting the Broker do.  This is my job description, my half of the deal.  The next two sections are your half of the deal.

You promise that the property really is yours to sell — and that it’s not the collateral on any loan except your home mortgage –  you aren’t cheating on another agent in order to work with me, and you haven’t given anyone else first dibs on buying the property.  You let me know if the house is in a Historic Preservation Area, if you have any HOA fees, or any unpaid Special Assessments.  And you promise that you’re not lying about any of it.  I don’t like being lied to any more than you do.

You also promise:

a) not to be a jerk to work with

b) not to cheat on me

c) to COMMUNICATE with me about things that affect our relationship.

Because we’re in this together, you know?

And it’s got the standard “We all live in an uncertain world, and I’m not responsible for evil people or acts of God.  Even though you hire me to help you sell this place, you are still the owner.  You are responsible for and affected by what happens here like no one else; it’s part of the burden of homeownership.”

You decide whether you want a home warranty, and you see that defaulting on your agreement is not something you want to do.

And if we get into a fight, you agree to go to mediation.  Like that new show on USA with whatsername, the lady who looks like a walking toothpaste commercial, but without the wardrobe budget.

The last page is the legalese:

- if we fight in court, the winner takes all and the loser pays the lawyers

- there are lots of other documents we’ll sign; all together they make up our agreement

- you can’t give away your part in this deal without my consent (and vice versa)

- unless you die

- if Mr. & Mrs. Seller split up while the house is on the market, they still both have to sign the contract and closing documents.  If it’s messy and they can’t see each other without jumping for the others’ jugular veins, we can have separate closing times, but both names are on the listing, so they both have to sign.

- and there is no set, standard commission rate.  That would be a violation of Anti-Trust Law.  We don’t want to do that, because then Zombie Teddy Roosevelt would come and eat our brains.  That would be bad.

BRAAAAIIIINS!!

 

- and finally, we Realtors aren’t lawyers, and don’t give legal advice.

The last page has where you sign & put your contact info.  And there you have it; our gripping read of a Listing Agreement.

If you have any questions about this form, please feel free to ask!

Single-Party versus Transaction Brokers

Single-Party vs. Transaction Brokers.  There’s a difference.  It matters.

Brokers who are working for sellers (Listing Brokers) are working to get the highest price they can.   Brokers who are working for buyers (Selling Brokers — I know, it doesn’t make sense, does it? just go with it) are working to get the lowest price.  Stating the obvious:  ONE PERSON CAN’T DO TWO CONTRADICTORY THINGS.

So the State of Oklahoma decided that there should be two ways to work with clients:  working for the benefit of only one party, and working solely to get the transaction completed.  Single Party Brokers work (surprise!) for a single party, and Transaction Brokers work to close the deal and don’t advise or advocate for any party.

To see the Single-Party Broker Disclosure (Revised 11-2009), click here.

To see the Transaction Broker Disclosure (also 11-2009), click here.

SuperRealtor, a Single-Party Broker, says: HERE I come to save the DAY*! *your day only. No one else's day will I save. Offer valid only in participating locations.

Here’s what normally happens:  Mr. & Mrs. Seller list with me; I work for them as a Single-Party Broker by advising and advocating for them, helping them price, prepare, and present their home for the market in the best possible way.  We put it on the market and another agent sells it.  I remain a Single-Party Broker throughout the process, advising them as we negotiate the offer and move from having a signed contract to closing the deal.

If, however, I sell Mr. & Mrs. Seller’s place during an open house or from a sign call to a client who isn’t already working with a Realtor, I will (if it’s okay with everyone, which it usually is) change my  status to a Transaction Broker because I cannot get Mr. & Mrs. Seller the highest price for their home and Ms. Buyer the lowest price simultaneously.  So what I’m working for is getting the deal done, rather than the specific benefit of a single party.  This is usually A-OK with the buyer and the seller because, hey, the whole reason they called me in the first place was to sell/buy a place.  Make sense?

ZenRealtor, a Transaction Broker, enjoys the peace that flows from having a single goal: Close. Close. Close. Close ...

Single Party Brokers:

• Are honest with all parties
• Write up, receive, and present all offers and counter-offers
• Give their clients estimates of what their closing costs will be
• Keep their clients informed about the progress of the transaction
• Account for the earnest money their clients pay or receive
• Keep their client’s information confidential
• Work for their client’s benefit (as far as the law allows)
• Disclose everything they know about the house in question
• Obey their client’s specific directions, as far as the law and the contract allows
• Let their client know that the client may be vicariously liable for the Broker’s actions
• Obey the Oklahoma Real Estate Code and the law
• Keep confidential information confidential

Transaction Brokers:

• Are honest with all parties
• Write up, receive, and present all offers and counter-offers
• Give their clients estimates of what their closing costs will be
• Keep their clients informed about the progress of the transaction
• Account for the earnest money their clients pay or receive
• Keep their client’s information confidential
• Work for their client’s benefit (as far as the law allows)
• Disclose everything they know about the house in question
• Obey their client’s specific directions, as far as the law and the contract allows
• Let their client know that the client may be vicariously liable for the Broker’s actions
• Obey the Oklahoma Real Estate Code and the law
• Keep confidential information confidential

The most important aspect of this thing is one that most agents don’t address:  If your agent is acting on your behalf as a Single-Party Broker, you can be vicariously liable for their actions and omissions.  So choose your agent wisely, eh?  And don’t ask us to do anything illegal.

Does that make sense?  If you have any questions, just ask!